Abraham George Biography: From the Indian Army to Shanti Bhavan
Abraham George is an Indian American entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded Shanti Bhavan, a free residential school in Tamil Nadu, in 1997. The Abraham George biography runs from a childhood in Kerala and service as an Indian Army officer to a career in New York banking and financial software, and then to his return to India in 1995 to start The George Foundation.
Abraham George biography: childhood and family in Kerala
Abraham M. George was born in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala, the second of four children of Mathew and Aleyamma George. A 2006 profile in NYU Stern's STERNbusiness magazine described a middle-class household in which both parents were professors.
Reviews of his memoir, Mountains to Cross, describe a Syrian Christian family in which his father was a Kerala High Court judge who later became dean of the government law college, and his mother was a physicist. Both parents later taught at New York University, his mother as a research fellow in physics and his father as a Fulbright Fellow in law. His mother worked for NASA in Huntsville, Alabama.
"She was a true maverick for her time, always gracefully overcoming life's challenges with hard work and persistence," he told Authority Magazine in 2022.
Did Abraham George serve in the Indian Army?
Yes. "I joined one of India's prestigious military academies when I was fourteen years old," he said in the same interview. That was the National Defence Academy at Khadakwasla. He also trained at the Indian Military Academy and was commissioned as an artillery officer.
As a young lieutenant, in the years after the 1962 India-China war, he was sent to the frontier. "I was posted to Sela, a mountain pass at an altitude of 14,000 feet through which China had earlier invaded India," he recalled.
The injury at Se La
The posting ended when George "was injured in a dynamite blast while building a bunker by a rocky mountain slope." He has said the accident left him with two questions: "Is this the career I should have, killing people? Why was I saved?" The experience, he told Authority Magazine, "led me to think of devoting my life, at some stage, to serving the poor."
He was later reassigned to the Indo-Pakistan border and rose to the rank of Captain. A hearing condition ended his service, and he was honorably discharged. He later reflected: "My tenure as a young military officer in the Indo-China border instilled a certain mental fortitude that has stayed with me to this day."
Abraham George's education in the United States
In December 1968 Abraham George followed his mother to Alabama and began graduate study there. He paid his way partly by teaching: "I was teaching at two or three colleges nearby to make a living," he said on a 2025 podcast.
At NYU's Graduate School of Business Administration, now the Stern School of Business, he earned an MBA in 1973 and a PhD in 1975. According to STERNbusiness, his dissertation argued for the benefits of a managed foreign exchange rate system. By then he had become an American citizen.
What did Abraham George do in business?
George turned down a teaching post at Syracuse University to join the international division of Chemical Bank, now part of JPMorgan Chase, in 1975. In his spare time he worked on software for managing currency risk.
He eventually left the bank and started Multinational Computer Models, Inc. (MCM) in the basement of his house in Montclair, New Jersey. MCM sold software and advice that helped multinational companies and financial institutions manage foreign exchange and interest-rate exposure. George has said the staff grew from four or five people to 150, and by 1990 MCM had offices in New York, New Jersey and London.
First Boston approached him in 1990 about a joint venture in international financial risk management, and he served as a managing director at CS First Boston. SunGard Data Systems acquired MCM in 1998, and George served as a vice chairman at SunGard until 2000.
Why did Abraham George return to India in 1995?
After more than two decades abroad, George went back to India in 1995 and set up The George Foundation in Bangalore. "I began to feel that time was sort of running out for me in terms of being youthful enough to do something for the poor," he told STERNbusiness.
According to the foundation, he sought no outside funding for its first ten years. Its early work included Project Lead-Free (a lead-exposure screening and advocacy program begun in 1997), a free medical center in Baliganapalli opened in 2000, and farm employment for women from poor families.
George also founded the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media in Bangalore, which opened in 2000 and trained journalists until 2024.
When did Abraham George found Shanti Bhavan?
Shanti Bhavan opened in 1997 with 48 preschoolers, 24 girls and 24 boys. The school is in Baliganapalli, Krishnagiri district, Tamil Nadu, near Hosur and roughly 90 minutes from Bangalore. It serves children from India's lowest socioeconomic class, whose families live on a few dollars a day, and supports them free of charge from about age four through college.
George's book India Untouched: The Forgotten Face of Rural Poverty appeared in India in 2004 and in the United States in 2005. NYU Stern named him its Stewart Satter Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2007. From 2008 the school moved from his personal funding to donor support, and its first class graduated in 2010.
Abraham George in recent years
Shanti Bhavan 2 opened in 2024 in Chikkahosahalli, north of Bangalore in Karnataka, with 60 children in preschool and kindergarten. His son Ajit George, who became chief operating officer in January 2024, is part of the school's leadership team.
Greenleaf Book Group Press published George's memoir, Mountains to Cross: Finding Life's Purpose in Service, on January 13, 2026. All author proceeds go to Shanti Bhavan, and the book won a Silver award from the Nonfiction Authors Association. "It is fairly simple; it is my own story from childhood to date," he said of the book.
On March 19, 2026, George appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show with a Shanti Bhavan graduate. He continues to lead Shanti Bhavan as its founder and CEO.
Abraham George biography: frequently asked questions
What rank did Abraham George hold in the Indian Army?
Abraham George rose to Captain. He trained at the National Defence Academy, served as an artillery officer at Se La on the China frontier, where he was injured in a dynamite blast, and was later posted to the Indo-Pakistan border.
When did Abraham George move to the United States?
Abraham George moved to the United States in December 1968, following his mother to Alabama. After studying there, he earned an MBA in 1973 and a PhD in 1975 from New York University.
What company did Abraham George found?
Abraham George founded Multinational Computer Models, Inc. (MCM), a financial risk software company he started in his basement in Montclair, New Jersey. SunGard acquired it in 1998, and he served as a vice chairman at SunGard until 2000.
Where can I read a full Abraham George biography?
The most complete Abraham George biography is his own memoir, Mountains to Cross: Finding Life's Purpose in Service, published by Greenleaf Book Group Press in January 2026. Abraham George describes it as his story from childhood to the present, and all author proceeds go to Shanti Bhavan.
Who runs Shanti Bhavan today?
Abraham George, who opened Shanti Bhavan in 1997, is its founder and CEO. His son Ajit George became chief operating officer in January 2024.